Explosion Kills 16 Chinese Coal Miners

Published 12:14 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

A gas explosion tore through a coal mine in northeast China, killing 16 workers at a facility in the same city where another blast killed scores of miners last year, the official Xinhua News Agency and a company dispatcher said Tuesday.

Ninety-seven miners were underground when the blast took place Monday in Lishu Coal Mine No. 7 in the city of Jixi in Heilongjiang province, said the dispatcher from Jixi Mine Group, which owns the mine. He declined to give his name but said no other injuries were reported.

The cause of the explosion was still under investigation, Yu Jiahua, chairman of Jixi Mine Group, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Last June, 115 workers were killed in an explosion at another mine in Jixi. It was the fourth deadliest in China's history, state media has said.

China has the world's deadliest coal mines, with more than 5,200 fatalities reported last year in fires, explosions and other disasters.